


Meet Me On The Battlefield

by fishcollective



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, Battle, Character Death, Death, Gen, M/M, Parabatai, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 14:10:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12683502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishcollective/pseuds/fishcollective
Summary: A big battle is raging, and it is not looking good…





	1. Jace & Alec

The war has been short but gruelling, and has culminated in the enormous battle before Jace. They have been fighting for hours on this muddy plain, trying to keep the horde of demons at bay. Some kind of super rift had been created, connecting the void and several demon realms to Idris, just spewing out lesser demons of different kinds en masse. Three high warlocks have tirelessly been working to close the rift, while defended by a contingent of shadowhunters, and they have finally achieved success. The demon surge may have stopped but the amount of demons left on the battlefield is staggering, with the friendly forces absolutely decimated. Blood and ichor is soaking the plain, and while the tide has turned Jace can see that the end of it all will not come easy, and will likely involve much more bloodshed. 

As in any fighting situation, Jace and Alec had started back to back, anticipating the other’s moves and seamlessly filling the space left. But the scope of the battle meant that they had inevitably been separated, moving out in opposite directions to deal with the growing force surrounding them. With the help of some shadowhunters from the Los Angeles institute Jace has been pushing a phalanx of moloch demons towards the edge of the woods, slaying them one by one until none are left. Wiping the ichor of his seraph blade Jace turns around and scans the battlefield, trying to find Alec again. 

He spots him, standing strong and tall, aiming his bow at an unidentified winged creature charging at him. But with his attention focused on the airborne threat, Alec doesn’t notice the ravener demon coming at him from behind. Jace however sees nothing else. 

“Alec!” 

The cry escapes him involuntarily, even though he knows there is no way Alec will be able to hear his warning. So Jace just runs. He swings his seraph blade wildly around him creating a path through the fray. But it’s too late. As if in slow motion he watches as the ravener demon rears back with its tail, and strikes. Alec falls.

Jace skids to a halt, dropping to his knees by Alec’s crumpled form. Heedless of the battle raging around them he reaches for him, turning Alec so they are face to face, while pressing his hands to the wound in his back. Alec smiles at him through bloodstained teeth.

“The descent into hell is easy…”

He slumps forward into Jace’s awkward embrace.

“No no no… Don’t do this. Don’t leave me!”

Jace presses his hands harder against the seeping wound, at the same time gathering Alec against his chest. But he knows there’s no use. He can feel Alec’s heart ceasing its steady rhythm as if it was his own. Inside of Jace it is as if a chasm opens up, threatening to swallow his soul and only leave emptiness behind. Then something snaps. And from the dark depths rises a rage like no other. Jace roars. Stumbling to his feet he screams until his voice is raw. He takes position next to Alec’s body, prepared to defend it with his very last breath if necessary. Not one demon more will touch his parabatai. 

And so, Jace fights. There is no grace to his movements anymore. He has lost his partner, so the dance is no more. There is only raw power and the desire to kill. Jace hacks and slashes and thrusts. His muscles are screaming, but he screams louder. This is not about victory anymore. His entire reason for fighting now is to protect Alec from more harm, however senseless that notion may be. 

Jace bleeds. He doesn’t notice it until the demons stop coming towards him, until the enemy force has been so thinned out that he has no one left to kill. His vision is blurry, but he can still hear the last remnants of battle somewhere far away. Something deep inside him urges him to join the last efforts to vanquish their foe. A soldier’s instinct. He stumbles and looks back at Alec, lying prone on the dirty ground — the only clear image in a world going black at the edges. He will be safe now. No demon will ever touch him again. And then before he can take another step, Jace too, falls. 

This is always how Jace imagined it would end — the two of them, going out together in the heat of battle. No one left to mourn the other and go through life missing a part of themselves. This is how it should be. With his last bit of strength, Jace takes Alec’s hand in his. 

“For whither thou goest, I will go…” he whispers.

In the mud of the quieting battlefield, the two parabatai’s blood runs together — finally, they are one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They needed to die together in battle okay? I've killed them in other ways but this is how it should be.  
> Not my exactly my greatest accomplishment, but it needed to be done.


	2. Izzy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Same fight, different part of the battlefield.

Izzy is bone tired. It feels like she has been fighting for days, and in some ways she figures that that is pretty much true. But she doesn’t let fatigue stop her. She is a warrior, and warriors fight till the bitter end. Her main task in this battle has been to protect the warlocks trying to seal the rift that had let the demons into their world. While they have finally been successful, it has not been a cheap victory. Immeasurable power had been required to close the rift, and it has brought all three warlocks into a catatonic state. Izzy doesn’t know if they will ever recover. She has escorted their seemingly lifeless bodies to safety, and back on the battlefield she is throwing herself into the fight anew. 

She can see that the tide has turned, and despite still being in the thick of it on her side of the blood-soaked plain, she senses victory ahead. They might actually make it out of this. Not all of them though. About an hour ago she had seen Clary go down, taking out a big group of elapids in a blaze of pure light. But since then — nothing. Clary is gone. Izzy had let herself mourn for only a second before turning back to the task at hand. People die in war, that’s something they were all prepared for. 

And then she hears it. Through the clamour of battle cuts a cry of pure agony and rage. _Jace_. And Izzy knows that her brother is gone.

Tears sting her eyes, but she clenches her teeth and fists and keeps fighting — for Alec, for Clary, for all those who have fallen. And for Jace, who she knows will never be whole again.

She fights, and she fights, and she fights. Ichor stains her blade, her whip, her clothes. She can taste it in her mouth, and feel it in her hair. But finally there are no more demons for her to slay. Around her the merger remnants of the shadowhunter forces are dropping their weapons in exhaustion. Most of them unsteady on their legs as the realisation that it is over hits them. They have won.

On tired but nimble feet she makes her way amidst the fallen toward where she last saw Jace defending who she assumes must be a slain Alec. With demons not leaving bodies behind, the battlefield is mostly covered with her friends and acquaintances. Not all demons have been vanquished however, only incapacitated. And as the shadowhunter survivors search the field for their loved ones, they thrust their blades into any demon body still twitching. After a battle of more equal sides, those might have been considered mercy killings, but this, this is just cleanup. 

A sharp pain blooms in Izzy’s leg. The battle is over and yet, she has been hit. Despite her aching muscles, she turns around and in one fluid motion buries her seraph blade in whatever had attacked her. She never even registered what type of demon it was, but she can feel the poison making its way through her bloodstream. 

A little further ahead she can see her brother and his parabatai, hands clasped in death.

 _So Jace didn’t make it either_ , she thinks. _That’s probably for the best_.

She takes a couple of steps towards them, but her knees buckle. Izzy sits back on her legs, letting her shoulders slump. Wearily she turns her head, looking out over the battlefield. Some distance to her left she thinks she might glimpse brilliant copper curls amidst the other fallen soldiers, but she can’t be sure if it’s really her best friend or not. Her wandering eyes finally rest on Jace and Alec again, together at the very end, and she is happy to not be left behind. 

She closes her eyes, but before she lets go, she thinks of everyone around her. Her brothers and sisters in arms. Her family.

“Ave atque vale.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted them all to be dead okay? I’m not proud of this fic. But it needed to happen.


End file.
